PV’s Thoughts on Possible Robot Takeover

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Many technology executives have released a public letter warning that the UN (United Nations) should consider dangerous robots. Elon Musk, heading the letter with 115 other professionals has stated that AI (artificial intelligence) should be a bigger concern than North Korea.

The group of 116 technology experts have released a public statement saying that “Lethal autonomous weapons threaten to become the third revolution in warfare.” The letter continued on to state how they are weapons of terror and weapons hacked to behave in undesirable ways.

Others do not agree with Elon Musk’s stance. Mark Zuckerberg, fellow billionaire and creator of Facebook countered his claims.

“In some ways I actually think it is pretty irresponsible,” Zuckerberg stated in a Facebook broadcast. He went on to state that Elon Musk’s fears were unnecessary negativity. Musk responded on twitter saying “His understanding of the subject is limited.”

Many PV students have different thoughts on the matter. One freshman, Matija “the Doctor” Milosavljevic, has an interesting view.

“I know about them [AI]. I know that they’re a thing, that the world uses now in different pieces of media like video games and characters, and AI can of course be used in scientific studies as well to further the development of robots.”

He continued on talking about his opinion on the development of AI.

“To be honest I really don’t think AI is too much of a problem. I think the only problem that everyone only ever thinks about is ‘Oh, AI is going to take over the world if we progress them too much!’ The thing is I think we’re too smart to actually evolve them far enough into our brainspace where they become as sentient as us and as smart as us. So I’m pretty sure even if that does happen humans will still dominate no matter what,” he said.

Another freshman, Julian Berriault, stated his knowledge on the subject.

“I have a pretty basic understanding of AI, as I know what it is and what it can do, but I don’t know how to replicate or use it. I think Elon Musk is a very successful engineer, for his age and even the company he works for. I feel as though he’s a very respectful man. I think Mark Zuckerberg is also very successful, for being the co-creator and chairman of Facebook, however, I dislike him for that reason as well,” he said. He elaborated. “I do not believe AI is a problem, yet. At the moment, we haven’t gotten far into its complexity, however, I do believe that one day, our understanding will grow and AI will then become a problem. I agree with Elon Musk for the debate on AI for many reasons, but the main one being that I also believe AI will be a problem. however, I don’t think it’s a “threat” at the moment.”

Finally, Tate Seely, a sophomore, expressed his thoughts after asked whether he thinks AI is a problem:

“No, it’s not. Have you seen robots? They’re stupid. People overreact to things. AI’s a good thing,” he said.

Elon Musk will continue to push for more awareness about AI. You can follow him on twitter @elonmusk. The only possible way to see who is right is to wait for the future.